


Long Term Contracts

by snowshus



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Found Family, Gen, M/M, The House - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 20:52:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13151820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowshus/pseuds/snowshus
Summary: In the winter they sublet the house.





	Long Term Contracts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kinetikatrue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinetikatrue/gifts).



> thank you to BOC for being so wonderful and helping with this.

They sublease the house in the winter, and by sublease Chris means that Wayne finds two or three kids struggling to afford college and pays them to house sit. So sort of the opposite of subleasing actually. Wayne is in charge of the whole arrangement, he’s good at that stuff, drawing up leases, figuring out paperwork. Chris usually meets the kids once or twice at the beginning of the school year and they’ve called him about maintenance things a few times over the years. So when the phone flashes his house number after the Wild get eliminated in the first round he assumes it’s a maintenance thing. 

“Mr. Stewart?” The girl staying there now has this high breathy voice that always sounds like she’s expecting to be yelled at. “I know I agreed to move out at the end of term, but something came up and I need a little longer to find somewhere else to stay this summer, would it be okay for me stay here another week or two?”

“Of course, it’s fine. Julie, right?” Chris clarifies. They had sub-leased to two girls this year and in all honesty Chris had not really bothered to learn which was which.

“Jewel, actually” she corrects. “I mean you can call me Julie, it’s fine.”

“Jewel. You can stay as long as you need. I’m going to up in a few days, but really take as long you need. There’s plenty of room and Wayne’s probably not going to be joining us for a while.” Chris adds as on television Giroux leaps into Wayne’s arms after his second OT goal takes the series. 

“Thank you, Mr. Stewart.” 

“Call me Chris.”

There’s a pause before she speaks again. “Thank you, Mr. Chris.”

He wants to say just Chris. Mister makes him sound like an adult and responsible and stuff, and it’s weird because Chris still feels like he’s a sixteen year old screw-up with no direction and no future. It’s always sort of weird that people don’t see that when they look at him. People look at him and they see a responsible adult now, with property and tenants, a man who pays his bills on time and knows how taxes work--or at least has a friend who knows how taxes work. 

Chris finishes his locker-room clean-out with an nebulous understanding between himself, the team, and his agent that everyone was happy with the arrangement of this past year and they would be working out a contract extension to continue it into the next year. It’s as good an end to the season as possible when you’re not going home with the cup. 

When he arrives home the place smells amazing, like what you imagine those houses in hallmark movies smell like, like sugar and spice and definitely not like Chris’ homes have ever smelt like. Mostly his homes have smelt like locker rooms, like day old pizza and beer and clothes that should really be washed. 

“Jewel?” He called out, not wanting to surprise his new house-guest with his sudden appearance. 

A young girl pokes her head out of the hallway. Her dark hair creates a halo around her face, curling up and out. She’s short, shorter than Chris remembers from last summer anyways, though maybe he was thinking of Alicia, the other girl who had stayed her this winter. 

“Mr. Chris?”

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Good, great.” She steps forward smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles in her dress. “How was your flight?”

“Good. It was good.” Chris shifts his bag more securely on his shoulder.

“Oh, um, I made cookies, to say thank you, you know, for letting me stay longer.”

“It’s really no problem,” Chris reiterates taking one of the cookies. “I’m gonna put my stuff down and then probably order a pizza if you want some.”

“Oh, um, sure, if it’s not a bother.”

“None at all.” Chris assures her, heading down the hallway. Jewel has been living in what is usually his room, through the open door he sees the piles of school books and the battered laptop covered in stickers sitting on the bed. He drops his stuff in Wayne’s room. It doesn’t really make a difference, he spends most nights sleeping in Wayne’s bed.

Once the pizza is ordered he grabs a can of soda and turns on the TV. It’s ten minutes into Flyers v. Capitals game one. The Capitals look tired. Backstrom is subtly favoring his right side, which is slowing him down and effecting Ovechkin’s game as he tries to adjust. Flyers on the other hand, they look good. They’re clicking down all four lines. That kind of magic teamness that you only get every now and then. Wayne’s gotten an assist and a penalty by the time the pizza arrives. 

Jewel comes to sit on the couch with him and they eat pizza and watch the game without much talking. She doesn’t seem like much of talker in general so Chris isn’t worried about it. Washington rallies in the third and manages an OT victory. Christ changes the channel when they switch to coverage of the Western Conference. Jewel drifts back to her room after finishing her slice of pizza and Chris flips through the channels lazily for the rest of the night. 

Chris doesn’t really see much of Jewel over the next few days. She stays in her room mostly drifting into the kitchen for food and snacks on occasion. Chris invites her to join him in whatever take-out he’s ordering during his ritual four day wallow/recovery phase. She usually takes him up on it and they eat Chinese, Italian, Moroccan, and more pizza in front of the TV. The Flyer play again on the third night and this time they keep the Capitals penned in the whole time walking away with a decisive victory. There aren’t any other games that night so he leaves the channel on through the talking heads and Giroux’s post-game. 

On the fifth day Jewel knocks on the door to Chris’ room. 

“I’m sorry to bother you, I kind of need a favor, if it’s not to much trouble.”

She uses that phrase a lot, and Chris keeps telling her it’s fine. Nothing she has asked for has ever been too much trouble thus far. 

“I’m going to look at a possible place to stay this summer and I kind of need a ride, if you don’t mind that is,” she tells him.

“No problem,” Chris assures her. “I need to get out of the house.”

Chris was not planning to go with her to look at the apartment until she mentions that the person she’d be living with was a guy. Chris figures if he wouldn’t be comfortable with his little sisters meeting strange men in their apartment alone he shouldn’t leave this girl to do the same. She insists that he doesn’t have to, which he knows, but he’s a guy and it’s his responsibility to make sure the women around him are safe. 

He’s glad he did. The guy that answers the door looks unhappy when he sees Chris, and spends the whole time they’re there staring at Jewel’s chest. The apartment layout barely offers her any privacy and no. Just no. Chris would never let his sisters live here, he’s not going to let Jewel. 

She insists it wouldn’t be so bad, and that she can take care of herself, which is besides the point. She shouldn’t have to. She should have a place to stay where she can relax, where she feels safe. That’s really important. Home isn’t just about a bed and a roof, it’s about being somewhere you can be yourself, where you don’t have to be afraid. 

“It’s all I can afford,” Jewel says as they pull onto Chris’ street. “I can’t keep staying with you forever.”

“Why not?” Chris asks.

She stares at him for a minute. “I mean Mr. Simmonds is going to need his room back eventually.”

Which is not totally true. They have separate rooms for a reason but they don’t necessarily need separate rooms. It’s more a combination of keeping up appearances and Chris finally having that space that is just his after years of three or four kids piled on top of each other in a room barely big enough for one. That’s not the sort of thing you just tell people though. 

“It’ll be fine.” 

“I don’t want to be your charity case.”

“It’s not like that. Look, that guy was creep and you can keep looking for another place if you want but you don’t have to rush out. I don’t mind you being around and neither will Wayne. We would rather you stay with us then end up in a dangerous situation.” 

Jewel knits her fingers together in her lap. “Thanks.”

They order Thai and watch game three. It’s a bit more a slog then the first two. The Capitals are coming back strong and Backstrom looking better. It’s long game with lots of penalties and very few goals through the first two periods.

“Do you mind if I ask, what happened to your original summer plans?” Chris asks during a commercial.

Jewel shifts uncomfortably.

“You don’t have to answer.”

“No it’s okay. I was planning to go home, but I can’t right now.”

“If you need borrow money for a ticket or something, we can work that out.”

“....no it’s not about money.” She says but doesn’t offer any more information. Chris doesn’t push. The third period starts up and Voracek scores a power play goal in the third but Kuznetsov scores two and Flyers go down one again. 

Two days later Jewel spends an hour in the one bathroom braiding and re-braiding one row of hair before Chris manages to get her to come out.

“I used to do this for my sisters,” he tells her as she settles on the floor in front of the couch and Chris starts getting to work. He hasn’t done this for anyone in years but the motions are still familiar. 

“So why the change?” He asks starting on the second row.

Jewel wiggles her toes, and the light reflects off the bright purple nails. “I have a date.”

“Nice. First date?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while. My, um,” she pauses for a moment before starting again. “My girlfriend broke up with me just before school ended.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

“When I was your age girls would break-up with me all the time.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“Probably because I was pretty shitty boyfriend.” Chris admits.

“I wasn’t that great at it either.” Jewel mumbles. “You ever become a good boyfriend?”

“I don’t know, but I think I’m a pretty kick-ass husband.” 

Chris watches as the wheels in her head turn and click into place. She bites her lip and curls her toes in. 

“Cool.”

That night Chris watches alone as the Flyers get absolutely crushed in game four. He goes to bed before Jewel gets home. 

When he does see her the next morning she’s all smiles and has that airy daydream aura of someone recently in love. It’s been a long time since Chris has felt that particular feeling though he remembers it well with the sort of sweet fondish feeling for something he has no real desire experience again.

The Flyers lose game five and Chris finally gets to call Wayne. It’s only been about 3 weeks but it feels like forever since he’s heard his voice and Chris can barely hold off the hour he knows he should wait for Wayne to finish changing and get home.

“Hey,” Wayne’s voice comes through the speaker exhausted and upset but still the sweetest sound Chris has heard.

“Sorry man.” Chris offers.

“Yeah, you too.” 

“Next year, right?”

“Always.” Wayne says and Chris can hear the soft defeated smile. He knows it well enough to picture it. “So it only took ten years but I hear you finally officially moved into my room.”

“It’s only temporary,” Chris lies with a smile.

“Yeah I heard that before.” Wayne answers and this time there’s no defeat in the sound of his smile.


End file.
